(no subject)

[homodachi]

I decided to take trips to London & Japan this year (in the spring and in the fall, respectively) and ever since I have been craving Japanese food like crazy. I mean, I've been back for a year and a half and never really gave Japanese food a second thought, but suddenly it's like a switch was flipped... one moment I'm thinking about all the fun things I'll do there, like see my friends and go to festivals, and you know what they have at festivals: TAMAGO SENBEI! And oooh, if I'm lucky someone will be selling roasted gingko nuts, MY FAVORITE THING EVER! And then we can go to Watami or something and get RENKON CHIPS and NANKOTSU AND BEER AND TEMPURA AND YAKINIKU AND THAT SPECIAL TAMAGO-YAKI STUFFED WITH ONSEN TAMAGO OMGSDLKFJSDLFKJLKJDFlkjdsfkjl

It was basically all I thought about all afternoon.


Guess I'm gonna have to learn how to cook it myself until November rolls around.

Comments

[spatulagirl.livejournal.com]

And don't forget your motivation! (mochi bacon!)

Dude. I crave fresh tofu, gobo, satsumaimo, and kabocha. And don't get me started on fresh vegetables.

I'm here in the land of abundant fruit and I haven't been eating any because I got so used to not eating fruit because it was so expensive.

Envy!!!

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

Mochi-bacon is the one thing I've been able to pull off since I've been back, though I still miss hanging out at that pub with you!

I can get most Japanese ingredients here at Uwajimaya—gobo either fresh or frozen and pre-shredded, somewhat-sketchy satsumaimo, etc. Some things are much harder to find though: I've never seen a yuzu for sale, nor fresh gingko nuts. (I've been thinking about buying trees for both.) And forget about lily roots for chawan-mushi.

As for fruit-avoidance, allow me to mention that pears are in season! And they don't cost $5.

[cutselvage.livejournal.com]

NOW YOU ARE MAKING ME WANT IT.

CRY. I MISS WATAMI.

(CAPS ARE NECESSARY).

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

no kidding. and don't get me started on Loft!

[luckydragongirl.livejournal.com]

Let me know when you'll be here! I'd love to meet up if you have time.

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! It was so much fun hanging out with you guys last year!

I... still have photos from that night sitting on my camera...

[alchymyst.livejournal.com]

I love Japanese food. My body really liked it when I lived there (my stomach was obviously Japanese in its previous life). Thank god I have a Japanese grocery store next to my house. It's funny how I now think of certain foods depending on what time of the year it is -- it is winter, must have nabe! :D For the same reason, I really want oden now.

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

Oh man, oden! I remember watching a special on TV about how they give chickens a special kind of feed to make sure that their yolks are that deep orange-yellow color for 7-11 oden. Do you make your own now?

[alchymyst.livejournal.com]

I can make my own oden thanks to the Japanese grocery next door. I think they will have everything I need. I'll just have to go without bright yolks in my eggs, I guess. :D

[oboe-sama.livejournal.com]

WAHHH. i want to go back to both london and japan as well. never mind that i was in london not even a year ago. >.> but i really enjoy visiting london in june, the temperature's perfect and there's lots of daylight. when we were visiting dad in hospital this past weekend he was saying how he'd like to go visit england sometime and see something besides the inside of heathrow airport, hahaha… i'll have to pester the family to hurry up and decide when they can go so i can show them around.

and jeez, it's been 7 years since i went to japan, almost to the day! now you've got me looking at the pictures i took when i was there! :P

so i take back all that i said about the sartorialist book and the 1776 soundtrack, now you've made me jealous! :P so, i call dibs on this for my souvenir! XD

The bare feet are killing me

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

Aww, you took travel notes on your Handspring! How quaint! XD

I still find your Sartorialist comment uncanny; I don't think I've ever mentioned publicly that I love that blog.

And here, I found you a discounted 歩ける寝袋 that someone decided to white-elephant. The description says it's unused, but I dunno...

[kchano.livejournal.com]

Please, please, PLEASE post recipes! I can't tell you how happy I was when I learned to make gyoza (I love just to put the sauce on rice >_>), agedashidofu and miso soup :D I can't find the dehydrated seaweed that I love at home though =( I love that it's kind of interactive - add these shriveled black/green flakes to your broth and watch it bloooommm into tasty greens! 8D I think that's what I enjoy about a lot of Asian food; it's damn delicious, and interesting.

I also really enjoyed your posts about plum wine, and bread :D

[homodachi.livejournal.com]

Oooh, maybe I will do that as I go!

For now, my absolute favorite Japanese cooking site is Just Hungry. I always found Japanese recipes kinda frustrating, but Maki spells it all out (and also suggests ingredient substitutions for people who don't live in Japan).